Day 1 – Rivet Camp

Day one of the bus build out is officially done! Yesterday we picked up the bus from the storage facility that it had been staying at for the last few months and took her home for good. Once back, we started straight in on the looming task of grinding off all of the interior rivets and removing the paneling and insulation from the ceiling and walls.

Rivet grinding is a tedious process. We’re using an angle grinder to slowly shred off the heads of the rivets so that we can pull the panels down. Each rivet takes between 15 – 30 seconds to grind, but holding the angle grinder up above your head takes a lot of arm strength! We read about a few other techniques like drilling them out or using a crowbar and hammer, but in practice the grinder has been the fastest option.

Eventually I (Alyssa) devised a ladder as a support system to rest my elbows on while I worked on ceiling rivets. Will, on the other hand, preferred to just muscle through it which left him with noodle arms after a few hours.

At the end of the day we were tired and dirty, but more than half of the ceiling panels are down and we think the sides will be easier. We’re back to work today and think we’ll be able to get all of these pesky rivets out by the end of it.

Alyssa jumped head first into outdoor sports when she quit her job at a successful tech startup to hike the John Muir Trail in 2013. Afterwards, she convinced Will to join her in starting a consulting company. He was game, with one condition: they move from Mountain View, CA to Boulder, CO. In Boulder they fell in love with mountain biking and trail running and realized that as long as they had internet, they could work from anywhere. Thus, the bus idea was born, and after a few months of hard work renovating the 2001 GMC BlueBird, they started living the dream of traveling full time while still maintaining "adult" careers. Thanks for following along on our adventure!

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We're Will & Alyssa. In 2013 we quit our Silicon Valley startup jobs to move to Boulder, Colorado and start our own company. The following year we decided to put the "remote work" trend to the test by moving into a 37' school bus we converted into the ultimate adventure mobile. We traveled full time for two years, and recently settled down in Bozeman, Montana to enjoy the mountain life with our dogs Hilde and Yodel.

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The fastest way to get a hold of us is on Facebook Messenger( « Click to start a message!) but you can also email us. Happy Trails!